7 Immortals
by lckychrm
Summary: The 7 immortals used to be the local heroes, always ready to help the Tibetans when necessary but due to a mistake, their last time together was marked by chaos, destruction and their own split-up to safer places. Now, Céline, with the help of Gabriel, is tasked to find the remaining six immortals and prepare them for what's coming before it's too late.


Céline Dubois was considered by many a stunning woman, almost out of this world even. Everywhere she passed by she made heads turns, mouths open and hearts drop, a fact that made many woman rather envious of her but that didn't bother her. In fact there were little things _in this world_ that would actually bother her and jealousy was at the bottom of that list.

Some described her almost a goddess figure: tall and slim, with eyes as green as one thousand forests and such blonde hair that each lock seemed a gold string. To finish her look she always wore a bright red lipstick made made her look the typical femme fatale figure.

But something about her seemed _off_ , almost like a puzzle with missing pieces.

To begin with there was nothing about her past, nor about her family or where she was from. The only thing known about her on that field was that she was found by Gabriel in one of his many trips, something about 1/5 years and he thought she was a good bet for the company. Curiously none of them likes to talk about that trip of the circumstances of their first meeting. Then whenever she went, small things started to get out of hand, especially when she was highly disturbed and to finish there was the pin, that unsettling pin that she wouldn't take out for nothing of this world and whenever that was mentioned she would drastically change her calm and collected mood to something rather panicking almost overprotective over it.

Mysterious or not (another trait that made her even more enchanting) the only thing that mattered was everything at Gabriel's and Gabriel himself started to become more bearable since she first shown up.

Honestly, most didn't had the keen eye to spot this subtle oddnesses and for her that was just perfect.

* * *

 _Shigatse_ _, May of 1992_

Gabriel Agreste had been walking for hours, that was all he knew.

If he didn't get distracted while drawing the marvelous sunrise on one of the hike's breaks, he was almost sure he would notice the whole group leaving without him. And now he wouldn't be lost! (No, he wasn't _lost_.) But great landscapes called great portrayals, and Gabriel couldn't help himself when it came to portraying stuff in general.

Right now he was struggling not to panic, trying to find a course, a clue, a sign that would put him on the right track again but everything looked the same: the same tones of white and dark taupe, the same marks on the snow, the same sky…

Not to talk about that walking was becoming unbearable, so was his headache and his breathing as well. On that moment all he could think was if natural selection was going to be benevolent for him and if yes, how could he make it work with no oxygen, a bottle of tea, three pills and a sandwich. It was impossible, but still Gabriel was a man of _impossible_ things.

It didn't last long for him to start to give (wait, Gabriel Agreste was _giving up_?); the slower pace and the consistent dragging of his legs were the most evident sign of it. His eyes reflected panic and his body screamed _death._ It was evident now why Everest was only for the toughest of the toughest guys.

"I can't hold this anymore." He whispered to the void, trying to keep his balance, attempting to walk steady. Eventually he fell to the ground and then a warm turquoise mist surrounded and whirled around him, almost as if it was trying to warm his body.

Could it be magic? _No_ , he fought that thought. Magic didn't exist and it was just a sloppy explanation for phenomenons that humans couldn't find an answer to. This mist it was just a fruit of his imagination; he had been in this mountain for so long now that probably he was already hallucinating due to the lack of oxygen. " _Yeah, I'm just slowly dying_ " he comforted himself, accepting his tragic fate. " _That's the pay for being a complete moron and adventuring myself into Everest without paying attention to the guide's adverts or even acclimatizing properly._ "

With a melancholic smile on his face, he tried to stand up to no avail and closed his eyes.

* * *

The first thing he saw when he woke up were a pair of piercing green eyes and of course _the mist_ still envolving him.

Was he in heaven? Probably not. Even with the mist's light this place was way too dark and moisty to be heaven and with his mere 22 years, Gabriel was sure that heaven was not the place he would go to when dead.

Noticing him waking up the eyes backed and now he couldn't see much more than a blurry face with some green light highlighting it, contrasting with deep shadows.

Next to the face was what seemed like a flying creature, though he couldn't distinguish more than a tail and a set of antennae.

Unconsciously, Gabriel rubbed his eyes to see if he would see anything better and tried to sit down, unsuccessfully since a strong force pinned him back on the improvised bed as soon as he tried to do a thing. Gaining strength (and guts) to speak to the said angelic _or_ demonic figure, he finally tried to pronounce himself. Nothing but a hoarse "Am I dead?" came out.

The softest laugh he ever heard filled the room. " _Totally an angel, even if not in heaven._ " He thought. And then the laugh stopped as quick as it had started, it's ghost still echoing on the walls.

"No." A girl replied. "You're not but assuming how bad you looked when I found you, you were really hoping for it. I mean, you humans are all the same, aren't you? You think this mountain is a playground where you can go up and down perfectly fine and alive, without any injuries or lifelong issues! Chomolungma isn't a joke, it imposes respect for a reason but you all are so reckless you cannot see that!" She was nearly screaming by now and surely she didn't noticed Gabriel's stunned expression. Nearly every word she pronounced was a total shock in the system for him.

"First, I wasn't trying to summit Everest or Chomolungma or whatever you call it." He responded indignantly, "I was with a tourist guide and a group! And I… I… I entertained myself during a break, by drawing the view and I got _lost!_ Well not exactly lost, but... _"_ (Oh, the bitterness on the 'lost' word. It still costed him to admit such a thing.) "Secondly, _humans_?! If I'm not dead, then what on earth are you?"

And magically the force that was pinning him down, lifted him up and held him still just mere inches apart the young lady's face. Now he could see her perfectly. She was _outstanding,_ absolutely _breathtaking._ She had a round face, puffy lips painted in a metallic aquamarine and there were tints of yellow, green and blue powder in her eyes as well. (Was that a hint of blush on his cheeks?) Her look was way too authoritarian but honestly he didn't care. And the angry angel was about to spat something but suddenly it felt like her buttons flipped and her look became soft and concerned and carefully she let him free.

"Sorry, I usually don't behave like this but it's been too long since I've actually spoke to someone. It feels like I've lost my manners." Was she bipolar or something? Well, at least she was sorry.

"Céline I wouldn't like to inform you of such thing but you were like that way long before you became dormant and isolated from society in general.. I guess it's called having a _temper_!" The tiny creature finally spoke, spinning in circles around her and finally hovering in front of her nose.

"Dusuu! Oh nevermind! I won't even bother to fight you again on this matter." And she turned her attention back to the human. "Uh…. This is Dusuu, my kwami! He usually never keeps anything for himself but I guess you'll get used to it quickly! And well, you already heard but I'm Céline, your personal lifesaver! I wish the circumstances were better but it's a pleasure to meet you Gabriel, right?"

"Wait, how do you know my name?"

"Oh, I know way more than you think!" Céline noticed the stiffness on his posture and she couldn't help but laugh. Messing up with humans had been one of her hobbies afterall. "Relax, I'm just kidding! I saw it on your notebook when you were busy dying. Unfortunately I guess it got lost in the way as well as your magnifiers!"

"I guess you meant my _glasses._ And it's okay, I guess. Nothing will replace the things I drew in my sketchbook but I can always buy a new one." He saw her look soften even more. If almost felt like a burden (other than saving his life) was taken out of her shoulders. Clearing his throat, Gabriel continued. "So what is a kwami, exactly?"

"Alright! A kwami, well Dusuu, is this tiny magical creature that helps me take decisions and also controls a tiny part of my powers and you know, it's almost like family. It also becomes my weapon if I ever need it and most importantly, it follows me everywhere _literally!_ "

Great! For a person who hated magic, Gabriel seemed to be surrounded by it. Maybe this was a sign that he should starting believing more in it.  
Maybe his disdain for magic was too obvious because he could feel both Céline and Dusuu gazes nearly crushing him like a bug.

"I know what you're thinking, but look around you for a second" She made a gesture with her arms to empathise even more what she was trying to explain. "The mist is magic, Dusuu is magical and I possess magic as well. Gods, even saving your ass was a work of magic itself, so as you can see it's very real and…"

"The reason why you humans, or most of you, disbelief magic is because you're still closed minded about it (and many other things as well)!" Dusuu complemented. He was really good at the 'never keeping his mouth shut' thing."

"So I hope this changes your mind."

He stared at the mist for awhile, letting sink in the fact that he was wrong and that magic just gave him some extra years. It was still _illogical_ but the proof were right in front of him and _on him_ as well, which made not believing a unfeasible option for now.

"Céline, may I ask you other thing?"

"Yeah, sure. I can answer anything you want me to."

"Dusuu said you've been dormant for awhile. What does that mean too?"

With no warning, her posture changed again not to something violent but to something distant and nostalgic even. She looked distantly to a painting on the wall. Seven people together, with their hands given in circle and with kwamis by their side. Seven bright colours surrounded them and in the middle of the circle was something that assembled a trigram. There was a mantra right down the painting. It was either a prophecy or a heroes tale, maybe it was better not to know which. The painting itself seemed to transmit a heavy vibe. Céline was way lost in her thoughts by now. Gabriel called her several times but she didn't respond so he decided to shake her.

"You don't need to talk about it if you don't want to. You looked quite disturbed about the matter." Was it softness on his voice? Quite surprising for someone like Gabriel, though.

"It's not the dormancy itself, I'm fine with that. It's more why I had to become dormant. But it doesn't really matter right now." Her voice trembled with every word. Even if she looked like she was back, a part of her was still lost in thought. Gabriel could tell that by how distant she sounded, adding the fact that she wasn't looking directly at him as she had always been until now. He decided that for now, it was better not to insist on it.

They stayed like this for awhile, this heavy silence filling the room until Céline finally broke it.

"There are seven of us. We are not humans but we're not gods either. We were known as the immortals by the locals, which is funny because that's what we actually are. We lived in this temple and our mission was to save the region from every kind of evil, whether it was magical or not. To help us we have kwamis and a jewel, a _miraculous,_ which is our major source of power. Basically if you rip it from us, we die. As you can imagine, such sources of power come with many risks so there were many people coming after us, mostly to steal our miraculouses and to get its power. We always escaped safely, until this specific day…." She took a deep breath to control herself. Both could hear Dusuu telling her to not cry. "This day where this group of people found us and it was an absolute chaos. They destroyed the majority of the temple and unfortunately they took a very valuable book with them. In order to protect us, our guardian set us dormant and took our jewels with him to a safe place. But two jewels got left behind: mine and Damien's. I don't know where he is or if he ever woke up but I found my way back here and I just protect Chomolungma and save reckless humans like you! It's not like what it used to be 150 years ago and I kinda miss my partners but life's good now, I guess! More relaxing than what it was, at least!"

All suddenly the heavy atmosphere in the room started to fade away, and everything felt so much better. Gabriel knew that venting up could be good, specially for the person who was speaking but this was too much. It was like a whole new level of post venting relaxation. Was even possible to feel that relaxed? Well, Gabriel wasn't sure, he'd never experienced such relaxation state before or relaxing at all. It almost felt like he was under anesthesia or something. Céline looked happier as well, maybe it was the magic of the temple working on fixing their mood. _Did temples had magic?_

"I see." Without thinking twice, Gabriel started to outline the idea to what it was going to be the craziest adventure on his life (later he would find it was going to be the most painful as well). This immortal magical girl and her big mouthed kwami, more exactly Céline and Dusuu saved his ass from the deadliest mountain on earth and as much as he could thank her (or buy something to thank her) he decided to make a move, an _apology offer_. And no, he wouldn't regret this at all.

"Céline, to begin with thank you for saving me. I'm extremely grateful for that. But I am afraid that as much as I thank you it won't ever be enough to actually thank you for the gesture. So I was thinking that maybe… Maybe I could help you find your partners so everything goes back to normal for all of you. That is of course, if any of you know the boundaries of normal."

For seconds her face was blank and her mouth wide open. No human _ever_ offered to do such a thing for her or any other immortal in general. It was a great offer but it was also too much to ask. She couldn't accept it, or at least she thought she couldn't.  
A smile from ear to ear covered her face and her excitement was no longer hidden. Her body screamed " _yes! Help me find my lost partners so we can be reunited again!_ " but her mind screamed " _no! You can't accept it because it means you can be uncovered and everything can go wrong at least in one hundred different ways!_ ". And as much as she had a logical side, Céline was an emotional person, mostly driven by everything that wasn't logical. So, once again, like in many other times on her life, she shut down the logical side of her.

"Isn't it too much for you? To find six people hidden only gods know where?"

"In theory yes, but I travel around the world frequently so that won't be an issue. Also my work provides me enough connections and resources that can be helpful to find them. By adding you and your magic to the equation, and if we don't make any mistakes, it seems a perfectly feasible plan to me."

"You promise you'll help me?"

"Is that a yes to my offer?"

She nodded frantically with her head and hugged him tighter than he could ever imagine. "Gabriel, you are the best human I ever met or rescued on my entire life!"

He wasn't a promises person, neither an emotional one but this time he let himself give in into this very strong display of affection. Something inside of him said it was going to be worth it, in the end. Not letting go of the embrace but not embracing back as well, Gabriel whispered: " _I promise, then._ "


End file.
